Late last year, some reported that Chile had been given notice of “potential availability” of Royal Navy warships.

Most notably reported by IHS Jane’s Navy International, it has been claimed by the outlet that Brazil and Chile have “quietly been given notice of the potential availability of RN frigates and amphibious ships”.

Janes reported that UK officials have “discreetly advised” that some of the frigate fleet in addition to the two Albion class landing platform docks could become available due to budget cuts.

Douglas Chapman, Shadow SNP Spokesperson, asked:

“To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Government has concluded a deal to sell any Royal Navy frigates to the Chilean Government.”

Guto Bebb, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence, replied:

“There are no negotiations with the Chilean Government about the sale of Royal Navy Frigates.”

An MoD spokesperson said:

“We can categorically confirm that there has been no engagement with either Chile or Brazil in respect of early sale of Type 23 Frigates or the two LPDs.”

The Royal Navy's first-in-class patrol vessel HMS Forth was delivered with multiple deficiencies, including broken bolt heads that had been reaffixed with adhesive, according to a report obtained by Scottish paper The Herald.

The first new Batch II River-class OPV, which just entered service last month, was found to have over 100 defects on board. While it is not unusual for a new ship to undergo a shakedown period after delivery, especially if it is the first in its class, some of the defects were of an unusual nature. Prominent errors included flawed work on life raft davits, where bolt heads were found "to have been cut off and glued in place."

In an internal document provided to the paper, shipbuilder BAE Systems called on its staff to improve their work. “Our reputation has seriously deteriorated on the back of recent business-wide operational performance and we all need to take action to improve this,” the memo said. “We need everyone in Naval Ships to consider what the barriers are to right first-time performance in your area and identify solutions that you and your team can apply.”

In a statement, BAE said that “we are aware of an issue with a limited number of bolt fastenings on board HMS Forth. These did not present a risk to the mechanisms that secure the life rafts to the ship.”

The Royal Navy's first-in-class patrol vessel HMS Forth was delivered with multiple deficiencies, including broken bolt heads that had been reaffixed with adhesive, according to a report obtained by Scottish paper The Herald.

The first new Batch II River-class OPV, which just entered service last month, was found to have over 100 defects on board. While it is not unusual for a new ship to undergo a shakedown period after delivery, especially if it is the first in its class, some of the defects were of an unusual nature. Prominent errors included flawed work on life raft davits, where bolt heads were found "to have been cut off and glued in place."

In an internal document provided to the paper, shipbuilder BAE Systems called on its staff to improve their work. “Our reputation has seriously deteriorated on the back of recent business-wide operational performance and we all need to take action to improve this,” the memo said. “We need everyone in Naval Ships to consider what the barriers are to right first-time performance in your area and identify solutions that you and your team can apply.”

In a statement, BAE said that “we are aware of an issue with a limited number of bolt fastenings on board HMS Forth. These did not present a risk to the mechanisms that secure the life rafts to the ship.”

Gavin Williamson to announce contract to build the latest nuclear hunter-killer sub has been signed with BAE Systems

HMS Astute, one of the British Royal Navy’s nuclear hunter killer submarines Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images

Defence secretary Gavin Williamson is set to give the go-ahead for £2.5bn in spending on the UK’s submarine programme, including its nuclear fleet.

The work had already been agreed in principle but Williamson will confirm the Ministry of Defence has signed a £1.6bn contract with BAE Systems to build the seventh and last of the Astute hunter-killer submarines, to be named Agincourt. It is scheduled for handover to the Royal Navy in the mid-2020s.

He will also confirm that a further £960m worth of contracts has been signed for the next phase of construction of four Dreadnought submarines to replace the four Vanguard submarines that make up the UK’s nuclear fleet, carrying the Trident weapons system.

The contracts will cover work over the next 12 months.

The Dreadnoughts, work on the first of which began in October 2016, are not due to enter service until the 2030s, and are predicted to remain operational at least through to the 2060s.

The UK’s parliamentary spending watchdog, the public accounts committee, on Friday warned of a £21bn shortfall: in other words, the Ministry of Defence does not have enough money to buy all the equipment it says it needs. It singled out for criticism spending on the four Dreadnoughts.

In spite of the huge squeeze on the ministry’s budget, the nuclear deterrent and the rest of the submarine programme has been ring-fenced.

Williamson is scheduled to make the announcement at BAE Systems in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, where the Astute submarine is to be built.

Williamson will say: “Agincourt will complete the Royal Navy’s seven-strong fleet of hunter-killer attack subs, the most powerful to ever enter British service, whilst our nuclear deterrent is the ultimate defence against the most extreme dangers we could possibly face.”

Cliff Robson, BAE Systems submarines managing director, said: “Securing this latest funding for our submarines programmes is excellent news for BAE Systems and the 8,700 employees in our submarines business, as well as our local community in Barrow and the thousands of people across our UK supply chain who help deliver these nationally important programmes for the Royal Navy.”

HMS Agincourt and her Astute class sisters are the largest, most advanced and most powerful attack submarines ever operated by the Royal Navy, combining world leading sensors, design and weaponry in a versatile vessel.

Confirmation of the build of the seventh Astute class nuclear submarine, HMS Agincourt, and a £2.5 billion pounds investment was announced earlier today.

Agincourt will have provision for up-to 38 weapons in six 21-inch torpedo tubes. The submarine will be capable of using Tomahawk Block IV land-attack missiles with a range of 1,000 miles and Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes.

For detecting enemy ships and submarines, the Astute class are equipped with the sophisticated Sonar 2076, an integrated passive/active search and attack sonar suite with bow, intercept, flank and towed arrays. BAE claims that the 2076 is the world’s best sonar system. All of the Astute-class submarines will be fitted with the advanced Common Combat System.

The manufacturer say that no other attack submarine is as technologically advanced. In the words of BAE, the Astute class is “designed and engineered to be the stealthiest submarine of her type, equipped with the latest and most powerful sonar suite and secure communications facilities, while exhibiting a low noise signature and optimum detection avoidance characteristics”.

The seven Astute class nuclear powered submarines will have the capability to circumnavigate the globe without surfacing, limited only by their food storage capacity. Able to deploy rapidly, they are powered by a nuclear reactor that can run for their 25 year lifespan without refuelling.

Courtesy of BAE, we’ve also been able to publish an interesting list of trivia. Did you know…•Astute class submarines are the UK’s largest and most powerful attack submarines and can strike at targets up to 1,000km from the coast with pin-point accuracy.•Astute submarines are the first nuclear submarines to be designed entirely in a three-dimensional, computer-aided environment.•Design and construction of an Astute submarine has been described as ‘more complex than that of the space shuttle.’•If the cables on board an Astute Submarine were laid out end-to-end, they would stretch from Barrow to Preston.•An Astute submarine’s 90-day dived endurance is only limited by the amount of food that can be carried and the endurance of the crew.•Astute submarines are the first Royal Navy Submarine not to be fitted with optical periscopes – instead the vessel employs high specification video technology.•Astute submarines will be the quietest ever operated by the Royal Navy.•The Devonshire Dock Hall is BAE Systems Maritime-Submarines main build facility, standing 51m high, 58m wide and 260m long.•The first submarine for the Royal Navy was built in Barrow, and every submarine currently in service was also built there, Holland 1.•Astute class submarines are designed not to require refuelling throughout her projected 25-year life.•10-week patrol the 98-strong crew of a Astute will get through (on average): 18,000 sausages and 4,200 Weetabix for breakfast.

The Ministry of Defence is looking at the size and composition of frigate fleet as part of the Modernising Defence Programme, hinting that there could be more than 5 Type 31e frigates with some even having ASW capabilities.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said at a Defence Select Committee meeting, when asked about any intention on expanding the number of Type 31e Frigates to be built:

“We’re looking at that as part of the Modernising Defence Programme. If there’s opportunities going forward to expand on that [the fleet size] we’d look at that as part of the Modernising Defence Programme.”

Plans to acquire a new class of “more affordable” Type 31 Frigate were announced as part of the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

It is understood that the Type 26 Frigate will primarily support carrier task group operations while the Type 31 is to be deployed for a range of less high-tempo operations.

The original planning assumption for the Royal Navy was for thirteen Type 26 Frigates (eight Anti-Submarine Warfare and five General Purpose variants), replacing the Type 23 frigate fleet like-for-like. However, it was later announced during the November 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review by then Prime minister David Cameron that only the eight anti-submarine warfare Type 26 frigates would be ordered. The funding for the remaining five general purpose Type 26 frigates is instead to be spent on developing a new class of lighter and more affordable general purpose frigates.

This general purpose frigate has been designated the Type 31 frigate.

Babcock and BMT recently signed a cooperation agreement which could see the Type 31e Frigate built in Rosyth, Scotland and Appledore, Devon if their bid is successful.

Babcocks ‘Arrowhead’ design for the Type 31e programme.

Recently it was reported that Babcock International was keen to challenge BAE Systems dominance and is interested in bidding for the £2Bn Type 31e contract. We understand that Rosyth in Scotland and Appledore in Devon are the preferred build and assembly locations for the joint bid.

Babcock were originally offering the ‘Arrowhead 120 while BMT were offering the Venator 110, the companies now say that they will be exploring both available designs to determine the best possible option. The companies say that arrangement draws on the combined strengths of Babcock and BMT and will deliver ‘innovative, capable, affordable and flexible customer solutions, within a fast changing and increasingly demanding environment’.

Babcock say that the Arrowhead design lends itself equally to either a single build strategy, or a cross–site build strategy bringing together modules – an approach used for aircraft carrier assembly at Rosyth.

BAE Systems also announced it would partner with Cammell Laird, who would ‘Prime, build and assemble’ the vessels at their Merseyside facility while the Clyde will focus on the Type 26 Frigates.Cammell Laird would be main contractor with BAE providing design and combat systems.

A BAE concept design for Type 31e.

BAE say the move will allow them to ‘appropriately support the National Shipbuilding Strategy’ whilst ensuring the delivery of the five Offshore Patrol Vessels and the first three City class Type 26 frigates currently on contract, ‘to time, budget and to the highest quality standards.’

The option to build the Type 31e frigates in blocks reflects how the biggest ship ever built for the Royal Navy, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was constructed. The aircraft carrier was built in blocks by over 10,000 people in six main British cities.

Tony Douglas, the Chief Executive Officer of DE&S, said,

“The Type 31e programme will drive the change that is needed through the entire system, because we have set tough time and cost constraints.

The collective challenge for DE&S and industry is to deliver Type 31e in a different, more innovative way than has gone before. I want this to be a transformation in the way we do business – not just in ships and acquisition but across the entire defence equipment and support portfolio.”

Ex-RFA Blue Rover was sold to the Portuguese Navy in 1993 and renamed NRP Berrio. The Portuguese Navy is currently examining possible replacements for this ship that they only originally planned to keep in service until 2005.

Back to the drawing board for Type 31e project24th July 2018 - 15:48 GMT | by Beth Maundrill in London

While the UK continues to pop the champagne over its Australia success with BAE Systems' Type 26 design win, the programme for the smaller Type 31e light frigate has fallen at the first hurdle.

As the UK Defence Minister, Gavin Williamson, spent last week showcasing UK shipbuilding capabilities in Glasgow to his Australian counterpart, London has decided to put a pause to the Type 31e programme.

First reported by Jane's and confirmed to Shephard by the UK MoD, the current competition for the Type 31e light frigate will be ‘restarted due to insufficient compliant bids received for an effective and robust competition’.

In a statement the MoD said: ‘Making this decision now and starting a new procurement is the right thing to do to deliver the best outcome. We will present plans for a new streamlined procedure imminently.’

Although it could be seen as detrimental to the tight deadline industry has been given for the project, with a first ship delivered by 2023, the MoD appears to believe this is still an achievable goal despite the disruption to proceedings.

‘There have been no changes in our plans to procure a first batch of five new Type 31e frigates to grow our Royal Navy. We still want the first ship delivered by 2023 and are confident that industry will meet the challenge of providing them for the price tag we’ve set.

‘This is an early contract in a wider procurement process, and we will incorporate the lessons learned and begin again as soon as possible so the programme can continue at pace,’ the statement said.

Merseyside shipbuilder Cammell Laird meanwhile said that the UK's National Shipbuilding Strategy 'required a new approach' from the MoD and industry, while it remained confident that the company 'will deliver a world class frigate' should it win the competition 'in due course'.

Cammell Laird had partnered with BAE Systems to propose its Leander platform, itself heavily based on the Khareef corvettes currently in service with the Royal Navy of Oman.

It is understood that industry is being encouraged by the MoD not to engage with the media and Babcock, which is offering its Arrowhead 140 design (pictured), declined to comment.